I know there's a hundred and one posts like this guys so I'll keep it brief: I'm just about to purchase a E6600 and plan to overclock reasonably heavily (I'm on water). I have no 'hands on' experience with the conroe chips at all but I wanted to try and get in the 3.5Ghz - 4.0Ghz region. Is this realistic or over-optimistic? I'm having trouble picking the best RAM/Mobo combination to compliment the CPU so here's a brief list I've compiled: Mobo ==== Asus P5B Deluxe (965) - £123.36 Asus P5W DH Deluxe Wi-fi (975) - £152.74 Gigabyte DQ6 (965) - £143.34 Ram ==== Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) - £199.74 GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit - £173.89 I've read Highland3rs stickies, which were very useful. It's just that now it's had time to settle down a bit and lots of people have experience with these CPUs, I thought it wouldn't hurt to get a quick opinion on what's hot and what's not. So, the best Mobo/Ram combination for an E6600 on water? Fire away....
That is a tough question. I run the P5W DH with a 6600 I have a fantastic watercooling system and I am able to run 24/7 at 425 fsb @ 3825mhz. I see in your sig you have a 7900GT. with a conroe pushing my 7900GT I score 152,000 at Stock!! on aquamark. over 185,000 OC'd on the card. Here are my benches, they will pretty much knock your socks off. WZ_3d03 WZ_PC05 WZ_2001SE 3D05 3D06 AQMK3 As far as memory goes, I recommend ONLY G.Skill PC 6400 HZ with the D9GMH chips I can easily run up to 430 fsb 1:1 with my timings set at 3-3-3-4 you won't get near that with anything else. Timings proof I can only speak for the P5W DH. I have thoroughly enjoyed min. I do a great deal of video editing and it just renders so smooth and so fast that it still wow's me even after a few months of it Good luck with what ever bvoard you chose. I think you will be happy WZ
Cheers for the tips WeldZilla . After a lot more reading, I think I'm gonna deffo go with the Asus P5W DH Deluxe (unless somebody wants to leap in with a reason not to?) as it seems to be an affordable, highly respectable and stable overclocker. The G.Skill 6400 HZ 2Gb kit looks awesome! Your timings are frankly, absurd and many others across the interweb are ranting about just how bloomin overclockable these fellas are. There's just two little problems with this: price and availability. I can only find one stockist in the UK and that's in Ireland! I'm pretty sure overclockers used to stock these but they're not listed anymore. Also, £250 is a little more than what I intended to spend on RAM tbh (I was looking as close to £200 as poss). Is there not another Dual Channel 2Gb kit that uses the same chips (from Corsair/Geil or the like)? Failing that, What would you consider as second best to the G.Skill HZs?
If you want full crossfire support, get the P5WDH. Otherwise, personally, I would get the P5B Deluxe, as its cheaper, and I also have reason to believe it is a better overclocker (check out these reviews - P5WDH , P5B Deluxe )
@Weldzilla - what voltage for those timings? @WA - The Dominators are (afaik) micron D9 GMH chips too, so you have a decent chance of a good overclock from them. The Geil's been a little hit and miss, it's cheaper but you may (or may not) get a decent overclock from it.
And a little note, you can get the cooling unit for the Dominators which clamps 3 40mm fans over it, apparently its not noisey either
Thanks for the help fellas . @ Highland3r I know you've overclocked the nuts off of most of the conroes/allendales so what would be your weapon of choice - P5B Deluxe or P5W - DH Deluxe? I figured that if I can get up to 430fsb from a 975 board then the CPU will probably run out of headroom before the board? I thought the 965s were better partnered with allendales, due to the need for huge fsb to get a good overclock? I mean, I don't want to go mad (i.e. I wouldn't forgo good temps for another few Mhz) just looking for a respectably quick o/c on water. Crossfire isn't really of interest to me tbh. I had planned to partner my new setup with a 8800GTS but with whispers that ATI's new DX10 card will make an appearance at the end of the month (along with reports that it pwns all things Nvidia ) I think I'll hold off for a couple of weeks. That said, I've become a bit of a Nvidia fanboy of late and may just use the opportunity to pick one up a bit cheaper Oh and thanks for the 'nod' with those dominators, I might just pick up a set while they're on offer at overclockers (<-- did I really just say that? , those people are evil I tell you, pure evil!)
975 board is probably a better option for the 6600. The 975 shouldn't have any issue on the run up to 400 FSB whereas you may run into problems on the 965's. Plus, the 975's are quicker above 400 FSB which gives you flexibility there too. Could also look to the Nforce 680/650 boards seem to clock similar CPU wise to the 975's and allow memory to run much higher than the 975's will. Not sure on the availability of the 650 boards at the mo though, haven't seem many floating about yet. (Personally I'd go for the P5B/965 board but thats just for the extra headroom needed for the 6600 under sub zero cooling. Probably not a good choice for most people wanting to run 6600's under "normal" cooling.) Another option ram wise crucial anniversary (tough more than the crucial) or crucial ballistix. Both are rated to 3,3,3 @ 333 fsb but both these kits should run the same speeds as the corsair without any problem, and cost a touch less. Not going to make much difference either way, overclocking wise there probably won't be much between any of the D9 GMH kits.
Thanks mate, I was avoiding the Nvidia 6xx series boards tbh. Whilst they look fantastic and appear to be horrendously good overclockers (particularly, as you state, with memory) they are not only ludicrously expensive (and ultimately out of my budget) but there has been lots of reports of data corruption issues with them. I'm sure this is just a small niggle that'll be ironed out but like I say, bit too pricey Bit like that tasty looking BFG 8800GTX water cooled edition So, to summarise - 975 chipset, therefore - Asus P5W-DH deluxe? Or is there a better 975 board to consider?
Crud yea, keep forgetting about the data issues - scrap the 6xx boards then lol! P5W yea, the DFI 975 board's meant to be decent clocker with a later bios, but the P5W seems to offer a better overall package.
Highland3r, you are truly 'da man' (or something ) Isn't the first time you've helped me out and it really is very much appreciated. Thanks to you and the rest of the guys for your help and advice. So I'm now gonna order: CPU: E6600 MOBO: Asus P5W-DH Deluxe RAM: Corsair Dominator PC6400 Hmm, now I just need to find buyers for my current stuff. I have 2 x A8N32-SLI Deluxe's, 2 x Opteron 165s and a 2GB G.Skill DDR HZ dual channel kit. Should nearly raise enough capital for the new stuff, hopefully.
Hey I think you will be happy with the Corsair mem. The D9GMH (Micron) Just seems to fly on this board. To run at that high and tight Igive the mem the full 2.4V I have been running it like this since the first week of August 2006 and no problems. I run an 80mm fan over the mem to keep it cool. I also pump my case full of Extremely cold air for the internal fans to push where I need it. There are also 2 120mm fans in the directing extremely cold air to the vid card and board. Still I believe you will be happy with your setup. I am running the 1707 bios. WZ
Wow Weldzilla, that looks hot! Maybe you could stick a few pics in the Gallery so we could all have a butcher's?
If you dont need crossfire then there really wasnt any need to splash the extra on a 975 board afaik? I know a fair few people (P5b ds3 users etc) who all get on great with their 6600's (400+ the norm) My Ds3 certainly does carnt wait to get water on it That said im sure you will have success thanks to the 6600 high multi
